Heat treatment of metal bars



Aug. 18, 1936. A. P. NEWALL HEAT TREATMENT OF METAL BARS Filed Nov. 9, l935 m wm a E la J WMWMW Patented Aug. 18, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application November 9, 1935, Serial No. 49,011 In Great Britain November 7, 1934 1 Claim.

This invention relates to heat treatment of metal bars, i. e., to heat treatment involving the use of a furnace for heating the bars to a given temperature, and a quenching apparatus, such as an oil tank, adapted to receive and to quench the bars after treatment in the furnace.

Apparatus of this type as constructed heretofore usually includes a furnace having a substantially horizontal hearth or bed which receives a number of bars to be treated and an associated mechanism for removing the bars simultaneously and conveying them to the quenching apparatus.

In practice, it is found that the bars under treatment are liable to be distorted because of the movements imparted to them in the course of their transference from the furnace to the quench, and the bars are liable to be unduly scaled because of their prolonged exposure to the atmosphere.

The object of the present invention is to provide a heat treatment apparatus in which the bars may be transferred from the furnace to the quench with the minimum disturbance and in the minimum period of time.

Heat treatment apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention is illustrated, by way-of example, in the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a vertical section, and Fig. 2 a fragmentary transverse section on the line a-a of Fig. 1.

The heat treatment apparatus shown comprises a furnace 1 having an inclined hearth 2 having a bar-receiving surface 2 adapted to receive metal bars 3 to be heat treated. Associated with the furnace I is a quench including a tank 4 containing quenching medium and provided with a bar-supporting member including a. series of spaced rollers 5 of which the upper surfaces are disposed co-planar with the hearth 2 for reception of heated bars 3 withdrawn from the furnace I. Each roller 5 includes a plurality of independently rotatable roller sections 5 (Fig. 2). In use, in the transference of the bars 3 from the furnace to the rollers 5, each bar travels endwise in a straight line upon the 5 rollers 5 and is supported throughout transference and quenching and subjected to an endon quench in the quenching medium. The rollers 5 are carried by an inclined frame 6 extending longitudinally of the tank 4, the end of the 0 frame 6 adjacent to the furnace I being hinged at ID to the tank 4 and the other end of the frame 6 being connected to a wire rope I led upwardly over a guide pulley B and downwardly to the drum of a manually operable winch 9 15 mounted on the adjacent end of the tank. The frame 6 is supported within the tank by slotted brackets ll attached to the sides of the tank and engaged by lateral projections I 2 on the frame 6. When the frame 6 is loaded with bars 3 which 20 have undergone quenching the winch 9 is operated to raise the frame 6 and the bars 3 into horizontal position, above the level of the quenching medium, to permit removal of the quenched bars from the frame.

I claim:-

Apparatus for the heat treatment of metal bars comprising a furnace having an inclined hearth adapted to receive the bars to be treated and an associated quench comprising at least one tank adapted for reception of quenching medium and provided with bar-supporting members which are coplanar with the bar-receiving surface of said hearth so that, in the transference of the bars from said furnace to said quench, each bar travels endwise in a straight line and is supported throughout transference and quenching and subjected to an end-on quench.

A. P. NEWALL. 

